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SECTION SIX
THE SECURE FOUNDATION OF SADHANA
The First Foundation of the Yogic Status
EQUANIMITY and peace in all conditions, in all parts of the being is the first foundation of the Yogic status. Either Light (bringing with it Knowledge) or Force (bringing strength and dynamism of many kinds) or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can come next according to the trend of the nature. But peace is the first condition without which nothing else can be stable.
31-7-1936
YES, a settled peace and strength supporting the intensity and poise in which everything foreign falls off, is the true basis.
16-4-1933 Page-147
THAT is of course how it should be. It should go so far indeed that you will feel this peace and vastness as your very self, the abiding stuff of your consciousness —unchangeably there.
26-9-1934
THAT is the right way—to keep the peace of the higher consciousness; then even if there is vital disturbance, it will only be on the surface. The foundation will remain till the Force can release the true vital.
30.10-1933 Page-148
IT is very good indeed. The peace and silence must settle deep in, so deep that whatever comes from outside can only pass over the surface without troubling the settled calm within. It is good also that the meditation comes of itself—it means that the Yoga Force is beginning to take up the sadhana.
18-9-1934
IT (peace) has to be brought down to the heart and navel first. That gives it a certain kind of inner stability—though not absolute. There is no method other than aspiration, a strong quiet will and a rejection of all that is not turned towards the Divine in those parts into which you call the peace—here the emotional and higher vital.
31-7-1933
WHEN the peace of the higher consciousness descends, it brings always with it this tendency towards equality, samatā, because without samatā peace is always liable to be attacked by the waves of the lower nature.
31-10-1933 Page-149 Calm in the Outward Consciousness
You have attained the silent inner consciousness, but that can be covered over by disturbance—the next step is for calm and silence to be established as the basis in the more and more outward consciousness .... Then the play of the ordinary forces will be only on the surface and can be more easily dealt with.
7-6-1933
THE first thing is to bring down the higher peace and silence into the outer being, so that it will no longer insist on its own way of doing things.
22-9-1934 Page-150
THE one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital—a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner contact with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother. Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Ashram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever,—those who open their mind and vital to the Mother's strength and peace get it even in the hardest and most unpleasant work and the worst circumstances.
October 1933
You should realise that while quiet surroundings are desirable, the true quiet is within and no other will give the condition you want.
18-4-1933 Page-151
QUIET is rather negative—it is the absence of disturbance. Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances. Peace is a calm deepened into something that is very positive amounting almost to a tranquil waveless Ananda. Silence is the absence of all motion of thought or other vibration of activity.
3-11-1933
THESE are general words, of a general, not a special Yogic significance. Quiet, calm and peace can all be described as tranquillity: silence is akin to what is meant by stillness.
4-11-1933 Page-152
THAT is the right thing to do. If that poise, vacancy, silence in the head is once made permanent, a great step will have been gained.
12-5-1937
THERE is no such thing as néant. By "void" is meant emptiness clear of all contents except existence pure and simple. Without that one cannot realise the Silent Brahman.
15-3-1937
To be an empty vessel is a very good thing if one knows how to make use of the emptiness.
1-3-1937 Page-153
THE usual result of voidness is to quiet down any vital disturbance although it does not, unless it is complete, stop the mechanical recurrent action of the mind.
17-1-1937
IF it is a real emptiness, one can rest in it for years together,—it is because the vital is restless and full of desires (not empty) that it is like that. Also the physical mind is by no means at rest. If the desires were thrown out and the ego less active and the physical mind at rest, knowledge would come from above in place of the physical mind's stupidities, the vital mind could be calm and quiet and the Mother's Force take up the action and the higher consciousness begin to come down. That is the proper sequel of emptiness.
17-3-1937 Page-154 Vital Mind's Distaste for Silence and Emptiness
SILENCE of the being is the first natural aim of the Yoga. A and some others do not find satisfaction in it because they have not overcome the vital mind which wants always some kind of activity, change, doing something, something to happen. The eternal immobility of the silent Brahman is a thing it does not relish. So when emptiness comes, it finds it dull, inert, monotonous.
13-3-1937
THERE is no reason why the void should be a dull or unhappy condition. It is usually the habit of the mind and vital to associate happiness or interest only with activity, but the spiritual consciousness has no such limitations.
10-6-1936 Page-155
PASSIVE peace is not supposed to do anything. It is by the complete solid presence of peace alone that all disturbance is pushed out to the surface or outside the consciousness.
3-8-1936
IT is not the usual character of passive peace that it can only concentrate in inaction. It can be there and concentrate in or behind action also.
15-5-1936
IT is this quiet and spontaneous action that is the characteristic divine action. The aggressive action is only, as you say, when there is resistance and struggle. This does not mean that the quiet force can't be intense. It can be more intense than the aggressive, but its intensity only increases the intensity of the peace.
20-7-1936 Page-156 Restlessness of Mind and Vital
THE mind and vital are always more open to universal forces than the material. But they can be more restless than the material so long as they are not subjected to the peace from Above.
Universality and Vital Disturbance
THE movement of universality by itself cannot prevent the vital from disturbing—it is the complete surrender and the complete descent of peace into all the being down to the most material that can do it.
30-7-1933 The Fundamental Calm: Individual and Cosmic
THE first is the ordinary fundamental calm of the individual Adhar—the second is the fundamental limitless calm of the cosmic consciousness, a calm which abides whether separated from all movements or supporting them. This is the calm of the Atman, the Self above, silent, immutable and infinite. Page-157 Need of Calling down Higher Power and Will for Removing Vital Disturbances
THE calm from above came to you and established your connection with the Above, and if you hold firmly to it, you will be able to remain calm. But to be rid of these vital disturbances, you have to get down the Power and Will that is also there above— or at least so to be connected with it that it will act whenever you call upon it against the forces of the Ignorance.
2-11-1933 The Right Fundamental Consciousness—Transformation by Descent
IT is the right fundamental consciousness that you have now got. The tamas and other movements of the lower universal nature are bound to try to come Page-158 in, but if one has the calm of the inner being which makes them felt as something external to the being and the light of the psychic which instantly exposes and rejects them, then that is to have the true consciousness which keeps one safe while the more positive transformation is preparing or taking place. The transformation comes by the descent of Force, Light, Knowledge, Ananda, etc. from above. So you are right in your feeling that you should open with a quiet aspiration or invocation for the descent of the Light from above. Only it must be an aspiration in this calm and wideness, not disturbing it in the least—and you must be prepared for the result being not immediate—it may be rapid, but also it may take some time.
25-10-1934
WHAT you have written about your condition seems to be correct as a whole. There is certainly a greater calm within and a freedom of the inner being which was not there once. It is this which gives you the Page-159 equality you feel there and the capacity to escape from the more serious disturbances. When one has this basis of inner calm, the difficulties and imperfections of the surface can be dealt with without upset, depressions, etc. The power to go among others, without any invasion is also due to the same cause. As for the second question, there is no general rule, but your attitude is the right one for you—for you have not the need of any particular development of capacity, having behind a sincere attitude of a more general and penetrating and pervasive character. Others who feel the need of a particular development actually ask for it and get it.
9-6-1936
To be aware of one's central consciousness and to know the action of the forces is the first definite step towards self-mastery.
30-5-1933 Page-160 Firmness of Central Consciousness
IF you can always keep the central consciousness clear and firm through such attacks, that itself would be a great progress. These attacks always come until the equality is established in the vital.
6-7-1933
You must gather yourself within more firmly. If you disperse yourself constantly, go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about in the pettinesses of the ordinary outer nature and under the influences to which it is open. Learn to live within, to act always from within, from a constant communion with the Mother. It may be difficult at first to do it always and completely, but it can be done if one sticks to it—and it is at that price, by learning to do that, that one can have the siddhi in the Yoga.
5-6-1934 Page-161 Living in the Inner Consciousness
You must have somehow externalised yourself too much. It is only by living in one's inner consciousness and doing everything from there that the right psychic condition can be kept. Otherwise it goes inside and the external covers it up. It is not lost, but hidden—one must go inside again to recover it.
8-11-1933 Living in the True Inner Being
IT is the past habit of the vital that makes you repeatedly go out into the external part; you must persist and establish the opposite habit of living in your inner being which is your true being and of looking at everything from there. It is from there that you get the true thought, the true vision and understanding of things and of your own self and nature.
3-4-1931 Page-162
YES, that is all right. Relying on outer methods mainly never succeeds very well. It is only when there is the inner poise that the outer movement is really effective and then it comes of itself.
27-1-1933 Page-163 |